Free Web NovelChapter 266: Terrifying Suspicion
Due to an emergency, I haven’t been able to update the novel properly recently. However, don’t worry—everything is under control.
In a few days, I’ll finally be free again, and to make up for the delay, I’ll be releasing 10 mass Chapters.
Thank you all for your patience, support, and understanding. I truly appreciate every reader who continues to follow the story despite the slow updates.
See you soon with a big Chapter release!
—
But now, looking at the current situation and the growing distance between him and his grandson, Mist King finally realized something painful.
Perhaps his decision had protected Vikram physically...
But emotionally, it had pushed him farther and farther away.
Until eventually, his own grandson no longer treated him as family.
That realization struck deeper than any wound he had ever received on the battlefield.
For several long moments, Mist King stood silently. Then, he rose from behind his desk.
Neither Isha nor Carol interrupted. They simply watched quietly.
Step by step, Mist King walked across the office until he stopped directly in front of Vikram.
The room became so quiet that even breathing seemed loud.
Mist King slowly lowered his head, a gesture that stunned both of his daughters. One of humanity’s strongest Hunters, the legendary Mist King, was bowing in apology.
"Vikram," he said, his voice heavy with emotion. "I owe you an apology."
The office fell into even deeper silence.
"When your parents died..." Mist King continued, "I convinced myself that keeping my distance was the right choice. I thought it would keep you safer. I thought it would prevent the Vampires from targeting you. I thought I was protecting you."
He paused, a bitter smile appearing on his face.
"But I never realized what that distance was doing to you. While trying to protect you... I was also abandoning you. I failed as a grandfather."
For a long moment, no one spoke.
Even Carol looked shocked. She had never seen her father admit fault so openly before.
Mist King finally looked directly into Vikram’s eyes.
"I’m sorry."
No excuses. No justifications. Just a simple, sincere apology.
Meanwhile, Vikram quietly looked at the old man standing before him. If this had been the original Vikram, perhaps his reaction would have been different. But this Vikram... was no longer the same.
In his life, he had no real family. No parents. And now, for the first time, he was experiencing what having a family truly felt like.
Perhaps the past had been painful. Perhaps mistakes had been made.
But right now, someone was standing before him, sincerely trying to make amends.
That was enough.
A faint, gentle smile slowly appeared on Vikram’s face. He nodded softly.
"It’s okay."
The simple answer immediately made Mist King’s shoulders relax with visible relief.
Vikram continued calmly, "You made mistakes. But you weren’t the only one. The past is already over. So let’s stop talking about it."
For the first time that day, a genuine smile appeared on Mist King’s face, a smile filled with relief. The thing he feared most, losing his grandson completely, had not happened.
Meanwhile, Isha quietly watched everything from the side. The anger inside her gradually began to ease.
Meanwhile, after seeing how easily Vikram forgave Mist King, a new thought suddenly sparked inside Carol’s mind.
Before anyone could react, she immediately walked over to Vikram and grabbed his arm tightly, like a stubborn child refusing to let go.
"Vikram!"
Everyone in the room instantly turned toward her.
Then, to the surprise of everyone present, Carol’s eyes suddenly turned red. A moment later, genuine tears began falling down her cheeks.
"I don’t care!" she cried. "You took my virginity! You have to take responsibility for me!"
The office fell deathly silent.
Even Mist King had a bad feeling about where this was going.
Carol continued dramatically, "After everything that happened, how am I supposed to pretend nothing happened? I already like you! Even if you expect me to just walk away... I can’t!"
Hearing her words, even Vikram was momentarily speechless. Inside his mind, he couldn’t help but complain: *You’re an adult... and older than me. Can you please act like one?*
Unfortunately, Carol continued clinging tightly to his arm, refusing to let go. Looking at her current appearance, she seemed less like the proud Captain of Team 10 and more like a spoiled child demanding her favorite toy.
Even Isha rubbed her forehead helplessly.
Eventually, seeing her genuinely emotional, Vikram let out a soft sigh. He gently patted her head.
"Stop crying."
Carol immediately looked up at him with teary eyes. "Then will you abandon me?"
"No."
"Will you ignore me?"
"No."
"Will you take responsibility?"
The entire office became strangely quiet.
Vikram smiled helplessly and wiped the tears from her face. "I won’t abandon you. I’ll take responsibility for my decisions."
Hearing that, Carol’s tears vanished almost instantly. Her emotional recovery was so fast it left everyone stunned.
Isha looked slightly annoyed, but after seeing that Vikram had made his own choice, she didn’t object further. After all, she had already made it clear, no one else had the right to decide anything about Vikram.
At this moment, Carol suddenly spoke again, "Then transfer to Team 10."
The room froze. freёwebnovel.com
Even Mist King looked away.
Vikram directly rejected her without hesitation, "No."
Carol blinked. "No?"
"No," Vikram repeated calmly. "I’m not leaving Team 11. That’s impossible."
Team 11 was his home. His friends were there. And Isha was there. There was no reason for him to leave.
He looked directly at Carol. "If you want to spend more time with me... then you can join *my* team."
The office became completely silent. freēwēbηovel.c૦m
Even Carol froze. She clearly hadn’t expected him to reverse the situation so completely.
"You want me to leave Team 10?"
Vikram shrugged. "Your choice."
Carol hesitated for several long seconds. Team 10 was her team, the one she had built and led for years. But after looking at Vikram, and then at Isha, she eventually gritted her teeth.
"...Fine."
Everyone stared at her in disbelief.
Then Carol crossed her arms stubbornly. "I agree."
The moment those words left her mouth, even Mist King looked surprised. He knew exactly how proud his younger daughter was. For her to compromise this much was extremely rare.
Isha looked at her sister for a long moment, then let out a soft sigh. At least this outcome was far better than endless fighting.
For the first time that day, the heavy atmosphere inside the office finally began to relax.
Mist King quietly looked at Isha, Carol, and Vikram. A faint, warm smile appeared on his face.
The mission had failed.
The Stronghold had been destroyed.
Victor Draven had escaped.
Yet somehow, one thing had improved.
For the first time in many years, his fractured family was actually sitting together in the same room instead of pulling further apart.
And for Mist King, that alone was enough to make him happy.
—
Following the incident at Bloodfang Stronghold, life inside Team 11 gradually returned to a new kind of normal.
Well... as normal as it could possibly be with Carol Danvers now officially part of the team.
From the very first day, everyone understood exactly what that meant. Wherever Vikram went, Carol followed. At first, the members of Team 11 found it strange and awkward. Later, they simply stopped questioning it. Even the newer Hunters at Headquarters eventually accepted the sight of Carol permanently trailing behind Vikram like a shadow.
Carol herself showed zero intention of hiding her feelings. If anyone dared question her, she would reply with absolute confidence, "What’s wrong with staying beside my man?"
The answer usually left people speechless. Even Team 10 eventually gave up trying to understand her decision. And since Isha had already accepted the situation, she no longer opposed it.
---
Meanwhile, Team 11’s overall strength soared to new heights. With Carol’s powerful SS-Rank mental abilities now permanently added to the team, their combat capabilities became even more formidable.
They now possessed Vikram’s versatile Plant Army, Isha’s overwhelming combat power, Carol’s terrifying psychological domination. Sana and Bushra’s support abilities, Kavya’s stamina enhancement. And the rest of Team 11’s veteran members.
At this point, many Hunters openly acknowledged Team 11 as the strongest squad in the entire region.
However, while everyone else celebrated their meteoric rise, Vikram’s thoughts remained elsewhere.
Bloodfang Stronghold. Victor Draven. The hidden laboratories. The grotesque experiments. The destroyed archives. The deceptive maze. All of it continued to bother him.
Especially Victor’s final actions.
The more Vikram thought about it, the less sense it made. A Stronghold could be rebuilt. Resources could be recovered. Even laboratories could be relocated. Yet Victor had chosen to destroy everything, his own base, valuable research, and critical intelligence archives.
Why?
What information was so dangerous that a Vampire Baron would rather obliterate an entire stronghold than allow Hunters to obtain even a single piece of it?
One quiet evening, while sitting alone inside Team 11’s headquarters, Vikram spread the few surviving mission reports across the table. He reviewed them again and again, carefully examining every recovered note and laboratory observation they had managed to salvage.
Shade and Phanty stood silently behind him like loyal guardians.
Suddenly, Vikram stopped. His eyes narrowed.
He picked up one small, seemingly insignificant report, a detail that most people would have overlooked. Among all the laboratory observations, not a single record mentioned ordinary blood-farming experiments. Instead, every experiment was focused on body modification, mutation, biological transformation, and genetic adaptation.
At that moment, a chilling thought appeared in Vikram’s mind. Then another. And another.
Slowly, the pieces began connecting together. The hidden laboratories, the grotesque mutation experiments, the desperate cover-up, and the destroyed records all started to form a terrifying picture.
And finally, his own Main Mission.
[Main Mission: Discover the Origin of Zombies]
For a moment, Vikram sat completely still.
Then his eyes slowly widened.
Because for the first time, he felt these events might not be separate at all.
Perhaps the Zombies were never absent from this world. Perhaps they simply hadn’t appeared yet. Or worse... perhaps the Vampires themselves were trying to *create* them.
And Victor Draven had just destroyed the evidence that could prove it.
The moment that realization hit him, Vikram immediately stood up.
If his guess was correct, then somewhere in this world, another laboratory still existed. And hidden inside it... might be the answer to his true mission.
---
After returning from Bloodfang Stronghold, Team 11 rested for several days.
Injuries from previous missions were healed, equipment was repaired, mission reports were submitted, and life inside Team 11 gradually returned to a sense of normalcy.
Meanwhile, Vikram spent most of his time training his summons and organizing the substantial mission rewards they had earned over the past few weeks.
While reviewing Team 11’s mission records one afternoon, he decided it was finally time to complete their original assigned mission.
[Assigned Mission]
[Investigate Ashveil Settlement]
[Target: Baroness Seraphina]
[Status: Incomplete]
---
The next day, inside Team 11’s meeting room, everyone had gathered together, including Carol, who was now officially part of the team.
Vikram placed the mission file onto the table. All eyes turned toward it, then shifted to him.
Vikram spoke calmly, "We’ve delayed this mission long enough. The month is almost over, and this is still our assigned mission."
Isha immediately remembered. "You’re talking about the Ashveil Settlement?"
Vikram nodded. "Yes. Since the beginning of the month, we’ve completed dozens of missions. We investigated missing caravans, destroyed Spawn Nests, raided Vampire operations, and even attacked Bloodfang Stronghold. But the mission assigned to us by Headquarters remains unfinished."
The surrounding Team Members couldn’t help but laugh lightly. It was true, they had become so busy that they had nearly forgotten the mission that had started everything.
Carol crossed her arms. "The weakest settlement. The weakest Baroness. Honestly, after everything we’ve faced recently, this mission feels easy."
Several Team Members nodded in agreement. After fighting Vampire Barons, clearing dangerous nests, and barely escaping Bloodfang Stronghold, investigating Ashveil Settlement truly sounded much simpler by comparison.
Vikram closed the mission file and said calmly, "Easy or not doesn’t matter. A mission is a mission. And we finish what we start."
The discussion quickly turned serious. Supplies were prepared, vehicles were assigned, equipment was thoroughly checked, and the departure schedule was finalized.
Tomorrow morning, Team 11 would finally head toward Ashveil Settlement.
The mission that had remained unfinished since the beginning of the month was about to begin.
